Alien Abduction

The giant mound of laundry that grew while the sewer line was clogged kept me up late last night doing several loads, and I woke up early this morning to continue.  In the midst of the mad rush to get the kids bathed, dressed, and fed, and myself out the door for a meeting at the office, I smelled something burning. 

I opened the basement door, and out wafted a haze of black, burnt-rubber smoke.  Since we have 3 smoke detectors monitored by ADT, my first thought was that the fire department would be arriving soon for the 4th false alarm at the Greenabderrazak residence.  I bravely and stupidly ran down to the basement to see what was burning, and the source of the smoke was the washer, which was on the spin cycle.  I lifted the lid and the basket wasn't spinning - obviously the belt was slipping or stretched and burning.

I turned the washer off, aired out the basement, and called ADT.  Then I called Ben to tell him the bad news.  When I told him that I was going to call the appliance guy to come fix the washer, it became obvious to me that aliens have abducted my husband, Mr. IgnoreItAndItWillGoAway, and in his place left Mr. Fix-It. 

Mr. Fix-It insisted that we could replace the belts ourselves for a fraction of the cost, and spent this evening watching appliance repairmen on Youtube replacing washing machine belts (when I walked past the computer I heard one of the appliance-repair professionals say, "So I'm going to replace this bastard..."). 

I guess Ben is still on the DIY-high from reaming out the sewer pipe.  Tomorrow night should be fun!
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Everybody Poops

It feels like much longer but I guess it was about a week ago, I had just finished running a load of laundry, and I found poop(?!) in the utility sink in the basement.  Since the washer drains into the utility sink, I assumed that there had somehow been poop in the dirty laundry.  I asked the kids who had pooped in their pants and Norah said that she had pooped during naptime at school.  I thought they had sent the poopie pants home and Ben had thrown them in the wash without emptying the poop out.  Mystery solved.

Then I mentioned the incident to Norah's teacher, Maria, and she said Norah hadn't had an accident.  Hmmm.  That night, Ben went to the basement and there was water on the floor in the front of the basement (the washer's in the back).  While he was splashing around down there, I noticed that there was soap in the water and I surmised that the utility tub had overflowed when I ran a load of laundry, the water ran to the lowest point in the basement, and then the floor in the area of the washer had dried.  Some additional evidence was the fact that a couple of weeks before I had noticed that the utility sink was draining slower than usual and I had mentioned it to Ben.  He had used his "you're over-reacting" tone and said that it was always like that.  I've learned that it does no good to argue with him, so I let it go.  When we found the water in the basement, he cleaned it up and again said not to worry about it.  WHATEVER!

The next night, after washing no more laundry, guess what?  More water in the basement!  Same exact situation...an inch of water in the lowest point of the basement, none around the washer, but it was wet under the laundry baskets.  We had all taken showers and baths that morning, and THAT water overflowed out of the utility sink.  NOW it's getting serious because that means it's not the sink drain that's clogged, it's the sewer line.  After making my case using a straw to demonstrate the fact that there was a clog somewhere down the line, Ben shunned my suggestion of calling Roto-Rooter and headed for Lowes.  He came back with a flimsy little 20' pipe snake (pictured above), and a bottle of magic drain cleaner.  WHATEVER!

Then came this...

Ben (yelling from the basement):  LORI!!

Me (yelling from the kitchen):  WHAT?!

Ben:  COME DOWN!

Me (now in the basement):  What?

Ben:  There's poop in the sink.

Me:  Yeah?

Ben:  Whose poop is that?

Me:  I don't know.

Ben:  That looks like your poop.  Did you poop?

Me:  How the hell can you identify my poop?  Who cares if I pooped?!  I keep telling you, THE SEWER LINE'S CLOGGED!  That's why the POOP came UP the sink drain INTO the SINK!  DO YOU GET IT?!  THE SEWER LINE IS CLOGGED!  THE POOP HAS NOWHERE TO GO!

Ben:  You mean, that water I cleaned up had pee and poop in it?

Me (WTF?):  I TOLD YOU IT CAME FROM THE SEWER PIPE!!!  YOU INSISTED ON USING THAT STUPID DRAIN CLEANER INSTEAD OF CALLING ROTO-ROOTER, SO YES, THERE WAS PROBABLY PEE IN THE WATER, AND NOW THERE'S POOP IN THE SINK!  DEAL WITH IT!

At this point I think it was Sunday morning.  Our handy-guy (Orialis) was supposed to come that day and he knows everything about everything, so we decided we'd wait for him.  When he came at 5 p.m., I had escaped to the office, so Orialis, Ben, and the kids all piled into the Camry to go to Home Depot and rent a heavy-duty snake.  By the time I got home they had been at it for a couple of hours and determined that the 50' snake wasn't long enough.

Orialis came back at 5 p.m. today, they went to Home Depot again to get the 100' snake, and finally reached the clog which was apparently some tree roots.  I will give Ben a lot of credit for spending 2 nights in the basement with Orialis, cleaning up all the water, and washing everything with bleach.  Now we have to figure out how to keep the tree roots out of our sewer line.  What's next?

Actually, I can answer that.  What's next is 4 dishwasher loads of dirty dishes (#3 is running right now), at least 12 loads of dirty laundry, and 3 filthy kids who will need baths before school tomorrow.  It should be a fun morning.   
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Costa Rica or BUST!!!

I don't usually post in the morning, but today I'm going to put aside the fact that I have a clogged sewer pipe, dishes and laundry that can't be done because of said pipe, kids home from school (Yom Kippur), a conference call at 8:30 and a class to prepare for. OM........

Instead, I'm going to think about Costa Rica. A few years ago with our 40th birthdays approaching, my friend Sherry and I started talking about taking a trip to Costa Rica. I used the same strategy for my 30th birthday (African safari) and it really took my mind off the milestone.

The night I received the suprise of my life and found out I was pregnant with Norah, my fourth thought (after "How are we going to afford 3 kids in day care?", "Can I add another kid to the mix without ending up institutionalized?", and "AAAACH! I've got to give birth again!") was "I hope Sherry doesn't go to Costa Rica without me!!"

Luckily, she didn't, and I hadn't really thought about it much. But last week she received an email about a travel deal to Costa Rica ($499/person + fees), and forwarded it to me with a note that she was just daydreaming. WHAT?! $499 for a week away? I'd pay that even if it was for a trip to Worcester!  Why daydream when you can pull out your Visa card and start living the dream?!

 

It took a couple of emails to convince her that I was serious, and then an email from Sherry convincing herself that it wasn't a completely crazy idea. Less than 24 hours later we were booked for a February 4th departure. YAY!

It's amazing how having something like this to look forward to puts everything else into perspective.  It's going to be an amazing trip, and I know Sherry and I will be great traveling companions.  If you're not sure whether you've met Sherry, she's the one who looks like my sister.  We've known each other since college, and lived together for a while before I left Vermont.  We are both easy-going and low-maintenance, and we always have a blast together.

Only 129 days to go!!
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Tailgate

We went to our first-ever tailgate party last night at the New England Revolutions game.  The event for elementary school families was organized by the new PTO Prez - Chris (Thanks Chris & Elizabeth!), and it was a lot of fun despite the chilly weather.  Luckily, I usually have enough clothes in the back of my car to outfit an army, so we all had on 3 or 4 layers.  The kids didn't seem to notice the cold and they just ran around the parking lot like a pack of loonies.

We left a few minutes before the end of the game because the kids were getting antsy and annoying the serious soccer family sitting in front of our crowd.

It was a great night and the Revs won...looking forward to doing it again next year!
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Bob Update

The other day I posted about my experience with the rug protection I purchased from Bob's.  I really didn't expect a reply, but I got a voice mail yesterday from a Bobs' Customer Service representative (not Bob, but he's probably busy making commercials).  She said that they had a $50 gift card for me and wanted to verify my address.

That's pretty good customer service, in my opinion.
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Awkward Family Photos

I stumbled upon this website a few weeks ago - AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, so now I have a habit of checking it when I look to see what's new on PeopleOfWalmart.com.  In addition to awkward photos, there are a few posts about other awkward family situations, including this one about Thanksgiving - unbelievable!

For the record, this photo is not of anyone in my family, though I'm sure we have some awkward photos in the family albums.  I just love the looks on the cats' faces.

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My Trusty BMD

As you may have learned from the road trip post with Norah screaming and throwing her shoe, I have a secret weapon for when the kids get unruly in the car.  I call it my BMD or Behavior Modification Device.  People with no imagination might call it a spray bottle.  Lana loved the tool so much that she stocked up on personal-sized BMDs that fit into the cup holder, and she gave me a pink one of my very own. 

This morning I was dropping Norah off at school and she was talking about getting her driver's license someday.  Here's the conversation that followed (I did not give her the idea.): 

If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably B.S.

I'm a loyal Jordan's customer, but a few years ago I needed a rug for the dining room and I went to Bob's because I didn't want to spend a lot of money for a rug that would have food dropped on it daily.  Today's drama involved that rug, pictured below.  Refer to my letter to Bob (also below) for details.  So far I have not heard from Bob.

Dear Bob -

In 2005, I purchased a rug for my dining room from your Natick store. The salesperson sold me on the “protection plan” by telling me that I could have the rug cleaned any time it was dirty - just call the customer service phone number to schedule. Four years later when our dog had an "accident" on the rug, I decided to take advantage of the cleaning protection I had paid for, and stopped by the store. The two people working at the desk confirmed that I just needed to call customer service, and gave me a card with the phone number. When I called, I was directed to call another number, which I did, and I explained my situation again. A form was emailed to me and I was instructed to print it and fill it out, including a drawing of the stain (I included a drawing of the dog just so the problem was clearly described.). I had to mail the form back (fax and email not acceptable), and wait while my claim was evaluated. Several weeks went by and someone called me to schedule the cleaning. He warned me in his phone message that I needed to call right away or the warranty company would cancel the claim. I called and made an appointment for a week later - today.

This morning I removed all of the furniture from the dining room in preparation for the cleaning and waited for the carpet cleaner to arrive. Imagine my surprise when he showed up with a “carpet and upholstery cleaner” with a 5” wide nozzle. He very politely explained that he was not responsible for cleaning the whole rug, just the stain. When he left my house I had a 6-square-foot area of rug that looked brand new, and 72 square feet that looked like a family of 5 with a dog and 2 cats had been dropping food on it for 4 years. The technician was kind enough to confirm that I could use my Bissell carpet cleaner on the rest of the rug without damaging it. Honestly, I could have cleaned the rug with my Bissell cleaner about 4 times for the amount of time I’ve invested in this carpet cleaning. Not to mention that I dealt with my dog’s accident long ago, since I obviously couldn’t leave it while my claim was being considered for several weeks.

I don’t expect a refund or even a response (especially if you respond that I should have read the “fine print”), but I think your salespeople should understand and explain the policy more accurately to future customers.

Sincerely,

Lori G
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Dancing Baby

This is really cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPRxWsX50kI
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Norah's Birthday Recap

Now that we've established that I'm insane (quite a few of you have agreed with me, and Lana bought me a mini zen garden), here are some photos from Norah's birthday last week.

Cupcake for breakfast:

The infamous homemade cupcakes (the kid with the allergy ended up being out sick that day!):

The Bedazzled shirt:

Family tradition, dinner at Bugaboo Creek:

Welcome Baby:

Out of the Mouths of Babes

This morning I kept telling Adlani to get dressed for school, starting with my Nice-Mommy voice and progressing through Stern-Mommy, Exasperated-Mommy, Incredulous-Mommy, and all the way to Furious-Mommy, getting louder each time. 

Finally he started crying the angry-cry and yelled, "IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" 
Me (Thinking, "This is gonna be good.  I need to write this down for the blog."):  "What's not fair?"
Adlani (still yelling):  "It's not fair that YOU get to just WALK AROUND, and WE have to do EVERYTHING!!!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Tin Grin

About four hundred and sixty three people have asked me why Aliya has braces at such a young age, so here goes.  She has a really bad cross-bite, which you can see from my highly technical photo at right.  I had been taking her to a regular dentist instead of a pediatric dentist, thinking that the only difference was that pediatric dentists had the TV's, stuffed animals with big teeth, fabulous prizes...boy, was I wrong.  The regular dentist didn't even mention the cross-bite to me...I noticed it when she was getting a filling and the dentist told her to bite down on that little piece of paper they use to check the filling.

Since I really disliked the front desk ladies at Adlani's dentist's office and Norah hadn't been to the dentist yet, I decided to find a new dentist for all 3 kids.  We found a practice that we love...Dr. C and Dr. B in Wayland.  Dr. B mentioned Aliya's cross-bite and recommended that she be evaluated for braces, which consists of a series of photos, x-rays, and measurements.

After the evaluation was done, Dr. C sat down with me for a detailed discussion of his findings and a plan.  It was obvious that she needed braces, it was just a matter of when. In the old days, kids got braces around 12ish, and had them on until 15 or 16.  Obviously that varied, but you never saw an 8-year-old with braces.  The orthodontist would wait until the permanent teeth were in place, and then try to maneuver everything around with braces, often pulling some adult teeth as well as baby teeth.
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Many orthodontists still follow this school of thought, but Dr. C has been a pioneer in the field of early orthodontics.  Some of the benefits are 1) Aliya won't have to have any permanent teeth pulled, 2) her growth can be used as an asset and her permanent teeth can be guided into the desired position instead of moving them after they're in place, 3) her teeth are more likely to stay where they are when the braces come off, and 4) she'll be out of braces by the time the she hits the awkward middle school years.

Aliya was excited about getting braces because she wanted to look older, but the first few days were rough.  She had to re-learn how to eat and talk because she kept gagging on food and always had a mouthful of spit when she talked - so annoying!  But she's doing well now, even though she has a gigantic "appliance" on the roof of her mouth.  She's already planning what colors and patterns to get at her upcoming visits.
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Aliya was a great patient, and the most amazing thing was that her dental assistant was one of the dancing queens from Samba.  She winked when she saw me, so I think she may have recognized me and didn't want me to call her out in front of her boss.  She's really nice. 

And the bottom line...yes, braces are expensive.  The total is $5,500 but Ben and I each have dental insurance for the whole family so a bunch will be covered by insurance.  The payment plan is $1,000 up front and $200/month, but Dr. C's office manager offered to defer most of the 2009 cost into 2010 so I could put money in my flexible spending account and pay for the braces with pre-tax dollars.  That would save me almost $2,000 if I was paying for the whole thing without insurance.

Let's hope the other two have nice straight teeth and no need for braces!

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Love Is In The Air

Last week Ben casually mentioned that his sister, Naima, was bringing a man to our house to ask for her hand.  Ok...fine.  WHAT?  Her hand in marriage?  Who is he?  What does he do?  Where's he from?  Where did they meet?  When are they getting married?  Do you think Ben had the answer to one of those very important questions?  NO!! 

Since this was the first time I had been involved with the tradition of someone asking for someone's hand, I had lots of other questions too.  What do I serve?  Is there some sort of ceremony?  Do I need a live sheep to mark the occasion?  What does one wear to a hand-request ceremony?  Is he going to bring the traditional giant sack of sugar?  Because I don't know where I'm gonna store it.  Again, Ben was no help. 

Luckily last week I got a preview of the future groom when I picked Norah up from Naima's.  He seemed nice, Norah liked him, and Naima and Majda had lots of good things to say, so he's alright in my book.  They came over Sunday night and took us out to Samba, where we had planned to go at Norah's request to celebrate her birthday.

So I guess I'm gaining a brother-in-law!  I lost count a while ago, but the more the merrier!

Here are some photos from the big night:

Not big fans of fire...Norah got upset about the volcano (and every time after that when the chef squirted something onto the hibachi), and Adlani hid under the table.

We brought an extra kid (kids eat free on Sundays!), our next-door neighbor, Leah:

Manners are not Norah's strong suit:

The happy couple:

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Fire in the 'Ham

On the way back from the soccer field tonight I saw a ton of very black smoke in the area of downtown.  It is now 3 hours later and 2 miles away I can smell the burnt-rubber smell at my house.  The fire was at a recycling business, and because it was on both sides of the train tracks I'm sure it caused quite a mess for the commuter rail.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x593046448/Fire-burning-at-downtown-business

My So-Called Life

This morning when I said that yesterday had been a long day, here's why:

7:00 a.m. - Naima (SIL) arrives to get Aliya and Adlani on the bus and take care of Norah.  I am making lunches and snacks in my underwear.
7:45 a.m. - Drive to Boston (now showered and dressed) for a meeting at the W Hotel.
9:00 - 11:30 - Walk up and down all stairwells at the W to look at the doors and figure out why certain electronic components are not doing what they're supposed to do. 
11:30 - 1:30 - Go to Revere to pick up Norah, drive back to the 'Ham and feed Norah while answering phone calls and emails on my Blackberry.
2:00 - Norah's swimming lesson at the Y, more phone calls and emails.
3:00 - Pick up Aliya and Adlani at school for a 3:45 doctors appointment.
3:30 - Meet Ben in the doctor's parking lot to hand off Adlani and Norah, take Aliya to doctor's.
4:15 - Head to the hospital for a chest x-ray on Aliya (clear).
5:00 - Leave hospital (in record time), call Ben to round up Aliya's soccer stuff and meet us at practice.
5:30 - Soccer practice.
6:00 - Take Adlani and Norah and pick up Majda (our niece) at Riverside T station, which became a 2-hour round trip because of traffic.
8:00 - Pick up dinner at Burger King.  Majda has not eaten for 24 hours because of Ramadan.
9:00 - Put kids to bed and accidentally fall asleep so I didn't do the work I had planned or get my act together for the morning.  Hence the rough start this morning.

I guess I'll be working this weekend.
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Rough Start

Yesterday was an extremely long day (more on that later), and I fell asleep while I was putting the kids to bed.  This morning I woke up to a mound of dishes in the sink, no clean drink bottles or snack containers in the cabinets, and backpacks, lunch/snack bags, and drink bottles still in the car.

By the time I got everyone semi-clean, dressed, and downstairs, I had 20 minutes to make 3 lunches, 4 snacks, 7 to-go drinks, and 3 breakfasts.  I know a bunch of you think that I have my act together, but that's what it is - an act.  Just ask the kids.

This morning I exhibited every form of unmommylike behavior.  I cried, yelled, spanked, swore, threw dirty dishes in the sink, lectured on the number of hungry kids there are in the world, and used the sink sprayer on Adlani.  I ended up with a pounding headache, Norah was late to "Circle Time" at school, we missed the bus by a long shot and Aliya and Adlani were also late to school.  It's amazing what one sinkful of dirty dishes can do to your day.      

And by the way...Ben...if you're reading this...putting the drink bottles with the plastic ice still inside through the dishwasher and back into the cupboard is not helpful.   
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This is My Hometown, People...

I guess there's still not much to keep the kids off the streets...
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Police: Quartet Attempted to Steal Restaurant's Logo

Posted: 09/06/2009 10:42:34 PM EDT - DAWSON RASPUZZI
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BENNINGTON -- With approximately 470 feet of extension cord running across four lanes of traffic and through a large parking lot to an electric drill, four individuals were arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly trying to steal the green and red chili pepper logo from the top of Chili's Restaurant on Northside Drive in Bennington.

After the restaurant alarm was activated around 4:30 a.m., police arrived to find Asher Woodworth, 23, of North Bennington on top of the Chili's roof after allegedly removing the bolts that secured the chili to the roof with a hacksaw and power drill.

Three women police said were keeping a lookout were also arrested, after police found two hiding in bushes and another running from the scene.

"There was definitely some thought put into this," said Bennington police Sgt. Camillo Grande. "They had wrapped a bandana around the place where two of (the extension) cords hooked together so passing motorists wouldn't see the lights."

Along with Woodworth, Susan Michet, 22, of North Bennington, Claire Davis, 22, of Lee, Mass., and Sophia Giordano, 22, of Williamstown, Mass., were all arrested for attempted grand larceny and released to appear in court on September 29.

When police talked to the four, they revealed they started the project of removing the logo at about 2:30 and had to go back for more extension cords because they didn't have enough, Grande said.

Grande said the four admitted that a friend of Woodworth's wanted the logo.

Police said Chili's representatives estimated the cost of the logo to be $8,000.

"They really did some damage," Grande said. "The bracket that held the pepper in place will need to be replaced."

Police said the drill was plugged into an outlet near Home Depot and was stretched through the parking lot and across North Bennington Road up to the roof of Chili's on Hannaford Square.

Bennington Rural Fire Department assisted officers in collection of evidence from the roof of the restaurant.

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It's Official...I'm Insane

That won't come as a surprise to many of you.  I had a really busy day today...kids to school, meeting at the office, then a couple of hours to clean up the day's email before I went to the chiropractor.  I was in REALLY bad shape...he pretty much gave me a complete overhaul.

Then I headed to the Natick Mall to buy Norah's birthday present at the American Girl store.  The parking there is always terrible, but today I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!  In addition to the 8 empty h/c spots, there were 11 "valet parking" spots blocked with cones...not a single spot was taken.  There were also 8 empty spots for curbside dining, and 10 parking spots for low-emissions vehicles!  In one row they were completely empty, and in the other they were filled with non-green vehicles, unless Ford makes a hybrid F150 pickup. 

After driving around for 15 minutes I finally found a spot about 3 miles away and dragged my hunch-back to the door of the American Girl store, where I was met by 2 men who were preventing anyone from entering unless you were registered for "the event."  I know in the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal, but I almost cried.  I shuffled back to the car and pulled up the American Girl website on my Blackberry to see if I could crash the party.  It showed the "special hours" for today as closing at 7 p.m. for "the event."  It was only 6:25!!!  I could have been in and out of there in 10 minutes!  I may have to file a formal complaint.  If the posted hours state that they're closing at 7, shouldn't that mean that at 6:25 they're still open?

I drove from there to the soccer field to wait for Aliya to finish with her clinic so Ben could go home and eat (he's still fasting for Ramadan).  As soon as I arrived, 4 fighter jets started circling above us.  They made 6 or 7 big circles and a few times they were pretty low...you could see the orange glow around the engines.  At one time I would have thought that was really cool, but seeing them circling like that brought me right back to the days following 9/11/01, when they were constantly circling overhead.

Aliya and I stopped and picked up dinner for ourselves at Big Fresh, and walked into the house at 8.  The other kids were still up so I took them up to bed.  That's when I realized that I forgot to stop and get the ingredients I needed for Norah's birthday cupcakes for school.  As I was rocking Norah I remembered that I always make special t-shirts for the kids on their birthdays ("Yahoo!  I'm TWO!), and I had no idea where the puffy fabric paint was.  I was all ready to run out to AC Moore, when Aliya pointed out that Ben had left the house headed for who-knows-where so unless I wanted to take 3 kids to AC Moore at 8:30, I had to come up with Plan B.

When Ben came back at 8:45, I went to Stop & Shop to get the cupcake stuff except that I couldn't find  the self-rising flour that the recipe called for.  So I bought cake flour and then came home and tried to find a recipe that I had all of the ingredients for.  I didn't want to use a mix because one of the kids in the class has a food allergy.  What's crazy is that never once while I was at Stop & Shop did I think of swinging by the bakery department and putting myself out of my misery. 

I got the cupcakes in the oven, and started thinking about how I would improvise the celebratory t-shirt.  Here's where the insanity starts.  I actually thought, "HEY!!  I have that BeDazzler that I got at the What's-In-Jenny's-Nightstand Yankee Swap!"  And yes, I have BeDazzled a purple t-shirt with a big number 3 and let me tell you...it's not as easy as it looks on TV. 

And now I have to go to bed so I can wake up early and put the butterfly bodies (half gummy worms) and wings (mini pretzels) on top of the cupcakes, deliver them to school, get Adlani to the bus, take Aliya to have her braces put on, take her to school, and go do a fire door inspection on a church that is now home to a Chinese restaurant.  I also need to squeeze in a stop at the American Girl store.  I'm tired already.
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Fall Soccer

It's that time of year again...when standard equipment for soccer games includes not only a ball and water bottle, but umbrellas, raincoats, bug spray...the list goes on and on.  It rained all night on Friday, and continued Saturday morning.  Adlani's game was cancelled but the U8 (under-8) girls are obviously made of tougher stuff because their game was held despite the downpour.  I stayed home (and dry) with Adlani, but Ben and Norah went to cheer Aliya on, and the report was that she kicked butt. 

Today was the annual soccer fair, and we had to be at the field for the first game at 10 a.m. and the second game at 2:30 p.m.  Luckily it turned out to be a beautiful day, because I spent 7 HOURS at the soccer field.  There just wasn't enough time between the games, team photos, and free hot dogs to justify trying to get out of the parking lot and back in an hour later.  I am really feeling my age tonight - actually, I'm feeling my grandmother's age.  When I got to the field I realized that my soccer chair was in the trunk of Ben's car, so I spent the whole day without a chair.  Poor old me.
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The day started off a little rocky when I realized at 8:45 that both soccer uniforms needed to be washed and dried within an hour.  For a while it looked like Adlani might show up for the team photo in his Batman underwear, but the uniforms eventually dried and we even made it on time. 

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I'm pretty sure I'm the worst soccer mom ever because I'm always screaming at Adlani to run, kick, DO SOMETHING!!! 
It's becoming more and more obvious that he may not be the next Ronaldo, but I hate to give up this young.  I'm just afraid that eventually his team-mates are going to hold him down and give him a good pummeling since he just runs around out there in his own little world.  At the soccer fair they were playing music so he was doing the robot all around the field.  Thank God it was still during the pre-game warmup.
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In these photos he's actually A) running, B) going in the right direction, and C) keeping up with the pack:
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But it's much more common to find him A) with his shirt over his head, B) using his shirt like Laura Ingalls used her apron, or C) distorting a body part:
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Aliya was a scoring machine but by the time her game finally rolled around I was sitting at the opposite end of the field from all the action and too tired to move so I have no good action-shots of her.  There's always next week.  And the week after.  And the week after.

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And then there was Norah, who did anything she could think of to try to entertain herself for the day, and she was actually really good.  There were lots of distractions...kids she knew, babies, dogs, food, etc., so she didn't give me much trouble.  I never thought I'd hear myself say that.

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Where was Ben during all of today's fun?  He was in the crawl space under our family room, helping Orzalis re-route the dryer vent.  Did anyone know that you're supposed to vacuum the lint out of your dryer vent every once in a while?  OOPS!

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I Don't Hate Hardware

As you all probably know by now, I have another blog that I started last February for work.  My idea for that blog was to teach my customers (hardware suppliers) and clients (architects) about hardware in a fun and painless way.  I know it's not the most exciting topic - door hardware - but for people in the hardware industry who DO find it interesting, there isn't currently another blog like it.

As I had hoped, the local customers we have introduced the site to have had really good things to say about it, and there are quite a few loyal readers who visit the site daily or weekly.  They also use it to find answers to their hardware-related code questions, so I'm actually spending less time answering emails and phone calls about code questions.

In addition to the readers who access the site directly, there are people who find it by searching "door closer adjustment", "where are panic devices required", "i hate hardware", or some other related topic via a search engine.  To date, people from almost 60 countries have visited the site.  A reader from Israel recently suggested that I do an industry profile on a colleague of his..."a big fan of the website"...in Saudi Arabia.  I find this fascinating, really.

What amazed me most was how many "normal people" (ie. not "hardware people") read the hardware blog.  Why would you want to read about hardware?  Don't you have anything you'd rather be doing??  The blog now has a Facebook Fan Page, and through the miracle of social networking, my aunt found the blog and became a fan.  I don't know my aunt well...we've probably seen each other less than 10 times in the last 30 years, so she is not biased because we're related.  She left a comment on the hardware blog that was so touching to me, because it very eloquently states that I'm meeting my goal.  It made me a little misty...

Lori, I have had no interest in, nor knowledge of, hardware. Despite this, I come daily to savor your blog. I love your command of language, and your ability to express yourself in a personal, personable, and humorous way.
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This means that I’m inhaling hardware information and awareness without being distracted by grammatical errors, illiteracy, and any of the other stumbling blocks I experience in “living online,” as I have done since my retirement.
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IR is obviously very well served by your technological expertise, and your ability to communicate that expertise to your primary audience and to those of us who never even thought about it!
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With admiration,
Linda

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Finally! No More Tile!

When we first looked at our house I really liked the kitchen, probably because it was brand new.  However, the longer I've had to live with the tile countertops, the more I've hated them.  The grout joints between the tiles are impossible to clean and I don't even want to know what's lurking in there.  Plus they look like hell.

A few weeks ago I was browsing around in Home Depot enjoying the solitary shopping time, and I noticed that they were having a promotion.  If you purchased a countertop that was more than 25 square feet, you got a free under-mount sink (usually about $300) and a free edge upgrade (usually $15-$25 / linear foot).  Then, like a sign from above, I got a coupon for 10% off and no interest for a year.

Today was the last day for the 10% off, so I made an appointment and took my little drawing in to my new friend George.  He told me that I couldn't use my coupon because it wasn't good on installed products.  I thought that was strange because while I was waiting for him I noticed a similar card stuck right to the Silestone display.

We went through the whole estimate process, and while he was printing it out, I went to check out the card on the display.  It said 10% off on laminate and installed countertops.  Our new countertop isn't laminate, but it is installed, so I asked him if it would apply.  Low and behold, it DID apply, so I got another 10% off.  WOOHOO!!!

The best part is that the old countertop doesn't have to be removed for the template to be made, so we don't have to live without countertops for weeks like we would have if this was done a few years ago.  Within about a month we should have a nice shiny new countertop, sink, and faucet.  The color, Absolute Green, is similar to the tile we have now, but it will be such an improvement.  We are also adding a bar-counter in the pass-thru window so the kids can sit at the counter in the family room and eat, rather than at the pub table we have there now.

The low point of the Home Depot experience was when I asked the guy standing around in Plumbing to help me with some faucet questions.  His answer..."It's YOUR kitchen.  What do you want me to tell you?"  What a dickhead!  When I asked my questions he was SO RUDE.  Finally I just dismissed him and sorted through the zillion options myself.  I HATE RUDE PEOPLE!!  

The photo is not our kitchen, but it shows the color.  I can't wait!
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Norah's Big Day

I've been doing my best to prepare Norah for her first day of preschool all summer.  She's been going to day care since she was a few months old and she's very familiar with her new preschool and teacher since Adlani went to preschool there, so everyone thought she would be fine. I had my doubts, and last week when she cried in the bathroom line at orientation, "Because you was lost," I really wondered how she would do today.

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We were all very excited this morning and kept cheering and saying it was her first day of preschool, but when I looked in the backseat I could tell she was a little unsettled...she'd have a pensive look on her face and then she'd smile when we cheered.  When I pulled up to the drop-off line and jumped out, Jannine (teacher and traffic-director-extrodinaire) yelled, "I think I just saw confetti come out of your muffler!!!"  I admit, it is very exciting to reach the milestone of one kid in preschool, both financially and also because I know Norah will thrive there. 

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I had described the drop-off procedure to her several times, like a very exciting bedtime story (as if she hadn't seen Adlani dropped off 360 times in the last two years).  I wanted to make sure she knew that the teacher taking her from the car to the school wouldn't be Maria, but that Maria would be waiting inside.  We practiced waving goodbye and we pretend-fought over whether she wanted Mommy or Daddy to pick her up from her extended-day class.  We described the delights of the playground, sandbox, gym, and cafeteria, and all of the activities that she could do in the classroom (most of which we don't let her do at home...Play-Doh for example).

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So when we arrived at the drop-off spot, extremely late because of all the criers and picture-takers, she jumped out of her car seat, I put her backpack on, handed her the nap bag, and off she went.  I have to admit, a couple of tears leaked out (of me), but they were tears of joy because I know she's in a great program and will have so much fun.  She'll also be fluent in Spanish before she enters kindergarten...just a little added bonus.   

Great Job Norah!!!

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